"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
He is moving down the coast on the opposite side of the channel, sand and salt coating his hair as it lay in tangled dreads around his wrinkled face. He is squinting hansome hazel eyes against the bright sun, looking at it through his thick dark lashes. He shakes his body, lithe and athletic. He is grown, albeit young, and his devil-may-care look shows he is from some place not of the mainland. Born and raised in Ischia, away from the politics and the drama. He rode the waves, and the rusty sound of his voice was only mirrored in the rust color that patterned his legs and face. Thick streaks of silver patterned in his hair, and it was the son of Deimos and Ea who had decided long ago that he would break the mold. Where his mother cared too much about things that it had driven her and his twin sister away from the rest of life—even more isolated than Grim had chosen to be.
But, in his own hypocrisy, he had bolted. Given the right big fuck you to his family, and had gone off on his own, growing up in the privacy of his own thought, developing a point of view on life that was very different than the way his mother had taught him to be. She had said he was the son of Ramiel, come to visit her in the midst of her dreams. But there was a darkness in him that always made him wonder.
Always made him yearn.
A growl settles in his throat as he curls a dissatisfied lip at the island behind him. Good riddance if he never saw it again. Turned away from the ocean, he looks at the copse of trees. He follows them down to a River. Settling with a thick step that flashes the line of his flank, he lowers his head to partake of food and drink. His thoughts are blank, only focused on what is before him.
A solitary pirate. A devil, and an angel.
GRIMDARK
deimos x ea, dragon vision, twilight manipulation, twin to allure
ooc: It's re-used.... but... I liked it and I like you. Don't hate me <333
I had never really ventured to the river, I hadn't needed to, Nerine was surrounded by water and the meadow had streams nearby.but for whatever reason I ventured, maybe it was the new leaf to do more, to suck the marrow out of life, but I wandered into the low cool ground,water babbling like a cooing child. My mahogany coat sun bleached to a fiery hue in the peak of summer stood out against the tones of green, and grey. Scanning the area I didn't really see anything of interest, so I waited choosing to cool off in the rushing waters of the river. Slowly I sank into the cool waters savoring the feeling of water slowly riding up my legs. I water the water lap at the rocks and jagged river bed, continuously carving its path deeper and fervently etching away any edge until everything was smooth. I watched as the water haphazardly pushed a loose piece of rock down stream, and a memory of almost being swept down a flooded creek as a child came to the surface of my mind. I squished it's, mentally stomped it away-- that night was too much.
A certain motion broke my thoughts, and at first I wasn't sure what, but after I scanned the spandex of land and water before me I realized what it was. It was the certain swashbuckling swagger of a silvery stallion. He had an air about him, I watched him from a distance not worried if I was caught staring. The look wasn't menacing, but as if he walked to his own beat and he didn't it didn't matter to him if someone didn't like it or not. As I continued to try to pin him down mentally, gauge his purpose or what have you, I knew I should have diverted my curiosity. I knew this curiosity was nothing good, I knew that type, “damn you and what you want” boys with their lopsided grins and silver tongues… nothing good ever came from a swashbuckler. But I didn't move, and I didn't stave my curiosity; I stared and wondered, presumed and hypothesized,
Apparently, I hadn't learned my lesson--bad boys are always bad news.
Vessel
Kimber x Nymphetamine
It's 1 AM, and I wrote this on my iPad, so... enjoy the typos that are surely in here.
12-09-2017, 06:04 PM (This post was last modified: 12-09-2017, 06:28 PM by Grimdark.)
THEY SAY IT'S OVER AND I'M FINE AGAIN
She was there then, silent as they all came—they looked, and they lingered. And eventually if he ignored them long enough, they made their way passed. But Grimdark could not drink forever. And she kept on staring at him. It was subtle, he supposed... but for the first time, he found that he had the upper hand, because he was hardly ever the subject of someone's fancy for longer than a breath.
The silver and copper colored stallion had a messy sort of look about him. He had just emerged from the sea, and he smelled like wind and salt, and he was covered in sand. And when he looked back at her, finally prepared to give her the attention she thought she was due, he looked at her with a hard look with eyes that shown like pewter—a hard, dark grey--with cocked brow and a firmly set jawlne. Water dripped from his black lips as he settled and turned, walking towards her, slowly. The cords of his muscles rippled in his wake. He was a huge man, and when he looked down at the small red woman,
"Do you see something you like, madam?" He spoke with an ease that belied his normal stature. A dark chuckle settled on his features, and his throat rumbled.
"Any longer and I may find I have to charge an entry fee."
GRIMDARK
deimos x ea, dragon vision, twilight manipulation, twin to allure
He turned toward her after a moment, a look that I couldn’t quite read from the distance settled on his rough-around-the-edges features. And maybe someone else would have looked away, maybe I should have. But I didn’t. Something in his grey eyes made my heart quicken, but I calm my heart, control my breathing. I hadn’t said a word to him and yet I react like a love sick filly. I wasn’t sure why I was so bold with this roughian before me, as I help his gaze. I guess I would have to actually talk to him to find out.
I stepped towards him as he let a quirky remark fall in rustic tones from his whiskered lips. I smile, ”I might. Hard to tell from there. Why not let me get a closer look to be sure.” Somewhere in my mind I’m screaming at myself, really… really, you slut. Stop. Stop this facade right now, remember that innocent thing you used to be… you can’t pull this off, so stop. You are not a slut, you are Kimber's daughter--you don’t do things without thinking it through. As much as that part of myself was correct, I didn’t just do things without thought, and I wasn’t a slut. But I also sensed something in the salty air around this stallion, and, who said I couldn’t. Have a little fun, try on this boldness. This confidence. I could easily change my mind, but I couldn’t just dwell on the sporadically available Chem. I knew what I deserved even if I knew that part of me would never be fully free of Chem. The flecked man covered the distance, and I also closed it as well, eyeing him.
The river was obviously not his home, he smelled too much of salt to be from the fresh water. No earth was not his scent, and she didn’t mind it, it was different-- the sea spray in his hair, unruly from being whipped by the ocean winds. His muscles tight from his efforts out doing...whatever on the sea. I preferred land, but maybe opposites still attract. He was young, younger than he looked when afar, but he was not so yo young that I should balk at the idea of being attracted to such a youngin’. But I thought it best to maybe tone it down just a touch, I could be bold but have some couth. He spoke of an entry fee and I laughed genuinely at that. He was intriguing this man. ”Well let me not forsake you your dues. Will the maiden’s name suffice your fee?” I pause just long enough to step forward and raise my lips to his ear. ”Its Vessel.” I said it simply, so simply it was probably a disappointment. But it made me smile, this little game. I stepped away from him turning my shoulder towards the shore and peeling off in a small circle to face him once again, the cool river water splashing up and darkening spots on my boat to a dark crimson-brown. When I faced him again I felt it was his turn to share, since you know I was so intrigued (my heart still wanted to beat quickly in my chest, though I wouldn’t allow it)
”You, my unnamed corsair, are a sea-man, yes? I smell it on you; that is of interest. How does a four-legger such as you survive on the seas?
I blinked at him as my voice fell sweetly, occasionally he may have picked up a slightly breathy syllable... if he knew to listen for it.
12-11-2017, 07:58 PM (This post was last modified: 12-11-2017, 08:01 PM by Grimdark.)
THEY SAY IT'S OVER AND I'M FINE AGAIN
Grimdark looked at her with all her fancy words, and the way she walked with that overly dramatic swagger, and he gulped. The silver of his eyes looked her up and down, and the ginger-red of her hair and the way her eyes looked at him like he were a piece of raw meat—if she ate meat, and he was almost sure that she didn't, and he smiled, self-consciously. He had counted on her walking away when he talked to her—they almost always did. To have a woman actually give back as good as she was given, it legitimately scared Grimdark to the silver roots of his mane.
His ears rotated as he tried to make out what she was saying in between all of her effervescent speech, but he was sure that somewhere in there was her name. Vessel his mind said, over and over. A container for keeping things in. Grim smiled sardonically, thinking that if it were turned around, she'd almost want to take him home and keep him inside her vessel. She was a pretty thing, touched by fire with the way her red hair flashed in the light. Kissed by the sun with the way the freckles of her roaning clung to her every curve. She moved like she knew how to work a man—and Grimdark, never having had been worked, found that he was wanting.
"Vessel," he tries outloud, his mind still chuckling internally at the thought of her carrying him around inside her pocket. "It's a nice name. My name is Grimdark." His messy unkempt hair framed his face in a way that showed off the chisel of his jawline, and his sheer size dwarfed her in a way that made the silver and copper man feel overly large. He did not know his father, and his mother was hardly around enough to have earned the title—she merely gave him life. Having spent so much time alone, he forgot how large he was in comparison to others like him.
He found he did not like feeling like the lumbering, uneducated giant. It was a little too fairy tale for his liking.
But, back to fairies, his little red Vessel stared up at him, and almost fell into his body, batting her eyelashes and commenting that he smelled like the sea. Does your man smell like me? No, but he could. Here are two tickets to that thing you love. Oh look. I'm a horse. How does a one such as he survive on the ocean?
"I swim." he says matter of factly, coughing his words as he stands still as stone, smiling like a fool at her attempts to woo him. He would not be surprised if she had some secret weapon with which to try and test her wiles. But no matter. He would happily be her guinea pig. He has not had this much fun in, well...
Forever.
GRIMDARK
deimos x ea, dragon vision, twilight manipulation, twin to allure
What. have. I. done. I must have misread the signs, took his words for more than they were. The silvery stallion stood dripping but the look in his wide eyes said he was not doing the same dance I was. We were about to collide, and not in the romantic sense of the word. A late summer breeze whipped around us, tossing his hair, and making my own flick on the wind like a kite tail. Maybe it would carry the awkwardness away with it. I thought back to what he said, jokes about admissions tickets… were they not flirtatious? A line of sorts that stallions used to make us girls laugh or swoon or whatever. It had to be. If I replaced this dripping bay with that of Chem’s black and white form it would have been. Ugh. the mess this is. Way to go Vessel. Way. to. Go. I guess I had no clue what I was doing. 10 years on this earth and I hadn’t learned I can’t be something I’m not--a saucy minx.
But the shock seems to subside, if at least for a moment and I hear him speak my name, his dark tones make it take a bold feel, not the typically sweet yet stubborn feel when I speak my own name. I smile as he says it, genuinely liking the difference in the way he weights different sounds. His own name follows and the smile stays for a while as I felt his name out mentally before replying. ”Well it is a pleasure to meet you, Grimdark.” I looked up at him, as he stood over me without lurching in a way that as menacing. His frame comforting in some deeply instinctual way that I didn’t fully understand or care to-- somethings were just better left alone. I didn’t know that he felt awkward and too big in his skin. But I didn’t go throwing that out, I wasn’t meant for overly bold statements, so I just relaxed into my curiosity towards him. Currently, it was towards his seaward appearance, and how he managed to just be out in the water. In Nerine, the water crashes against the land, and there was no easy way to break through them. She would die if she tried, the water would push her against the rocky cliffs and crush her petite frame with their might. But he said he swam, and so I had to believe him, I guess.”I could never, in Nerine, the waves are too strong, and there isn’t an easy entry point. I’d surely drown.” It wasn’t that I could swim.. But in the open ocean, no I would never… I would stick to the quiet coves where the water was still or the rivers that gently flowed downstream.
Trying to sweep the totally mixed signals and horribly awkward start under the rug I went to where most small talk conversations end up, ”So where are you from Grimdark, If you saw somewhere land locks I might just keel over from shock, considering your swimming ways.” I laugh the last bit off my lips, such a swashbuckler surely grew up in the water as well. As I waited for his reply, I dipped my dished face to the water, taking in the cool liquid before raising my head as the crisp water dripped from my lips. I hated small talk, but it was almost always a part of getting to know others...and that was the goal these days, so I had to get over it. But until then I would enjoy the dance of stranger meeting a stranger and the feeling of unknown that lingered in the air between them.
Watching the red beauty splutter and repeal her thoughts - how flustered she looked - made Grim smile as he viewed her, gaining a slow appreciation for her beauty and how she never seemed to know how pretty she was when she blushed even redder than her hair. And yet she seemed surprised at him when he told her that he swam. And why wouldn't he? This wasn't Nerine, this was the leeward side of Beqanna, near which he almost always kept to the River delta, and the Islands around Ishia and Tephra. There had been that one time that he'd continued walking - And he had ended up in Nerine. Vessel is correct. There is no way to traverse that water safely, however -
"Within the bay, it is a bit calmer than on the far side. The cliffs there are indeed treacherous, and there is no protection from the wind. But within the bay, it's not so bad." He smiles, shaking his head, tossing about the sand, suddenly aware of the mess he must have presented. The copper and steel man look on then, an awkward smile as his messy hair covered one of his eyes.
"You have me correctly pegged. I was born on Ischia. Though I do not claim it as home. Not anymore." Not since his mother went mad and Kirin had tried taking over the island. He had left in the cover of darkness, and hasn't been back since. He didn't even know if his mother was still alive. And his sister...well...
They shared a womb, and nothing more.
The day is growing longer, and the time is shifting. The first crispness of fall has set in, and an unfamiliar lurching draws him closer to where the lady stands. But he stays his ground. planted in his place on the beach.
"What draws you out here, to the River delta? There aren't usually many others out this far. You're the first I have seen in months."
GRIMDARK
deimos x ea, dragon vision, twilight manipulation, twin to allure
12-21-2017, 11:49 PM (This post was last modified: 12-21-2017, 11:52 PM by Vessel.)
» Innocence is always unsuspicious «
He doesn’t draw attention to my embarrassment, or even the change in my behavior, instead, there is a subtle change in him, he holds his eyes on me a little longer, smiles a little more genuinely. It wasn’t creepy, the way his eyes occasionally looked over at me, it was as if there was secret that I didn’t know but he did. And when he finally smiled in a more natural way-- not that nervous stiff grin, man talk about a sight. I averted my eyes as if it wasn’t for me to see. But we started talking about swimming and he seemed to relax into our conversation even more. He seemed confused by my apprehension of the water, yet he nodded along with some of the facts I presented. It was a different side of him one that led to more than monosyllabic replies and tense unsure commentary. His voice fell knowledgeable and sure, while he explained the bays, and how the water is different on this side of Beqanna. It was news to me I had seen Nerine, and I had seen the common lands, and then the lands before the Reckoning. That makes sense Grimdark, you really seem to love the water. I can’t say I love the water-- I was almost swept away by a strong river current after some rain when I was younger. Just a little--untrusting of deep water.” I smiled weakly at him-- what a memory that was. What I didn’t say was that I didn’t drown because of Chem… and how that lead to the twisted history I shared with the teal eyes stallion. How even as I found him attractive, and interesting I wondered if I would ever be able to forget about the black and white stallion who had been a huge part of my younger life.
I get lost in my head for a time, thinking of everything that led me to this moment. The fight in the meadow, how rough Chem had been...how he always seemed to find me… how I was determined to actually move on, to have a full life. I couldn’t just live in this suspension of time when he isn’t around; only living life when he was around. But now I had gotten out of from under him, and the mind game he had trapped me in and was determined to stay out. The sound of Grimdark tossing his head brought me back, and the disheveled look of him made me smile widely as a giggle escaped my lips. ”Here….” I bubbled ad closed the small distance between us before reaching up and lipping the rowdy forelock away from his eye and into a neater arrangement.I lowered my head, admiring my efforts, ”there. better? I smiled hesitating at our proximity before backing away to a conversational distance.
That nervous smile was back but it didn’t dwell long before he was talking about being from Ischia in response to my earlier question. There was a something behind his statement, but I didn’t pry, I allowed the cool breeze to pull that statement away, and just let it be. ”I get that, my childhood home got swallowed up with the Reckoning, but I’m at Nerine now. I’ve grown more fond of it through the years.” I focus on him, and he seems focused on me. A flutter in my stomach made me aware of his eyes on my more than normal, and my cheeks flushed, you would know due to my mahogany coat, but if he was attentive he might have seen my breath catch and my nostrils flare slightly. But his voice gives me something else to focus on other than butterflies in my stomach. ”Here? Oh, nothing really, Just trying to get out more, meet others, you know changing the routine and seeing what comes of it. I’d say this has been a successful outing, would you agree?”
Butterflies. They made it hard to focus, but I tried to be attentive. And while Chem had been a thought earlier, he didn’t seem so important, so dynamic, in that moment. In fact, in that moment the coppery stallion with the unruly forelock and lopsided grin made me want to swim in the open water, just to have an excuse to linger a little longer. It wasn’t anything significant-obviously they had just met… but I couldn’t help but want to keep exploring whatever this was. ”So that bay you were talking about, it isn’t too far, is it? I think I’d like to see it. I smile at him, my eyes dancing in the lowering sunlight as it moved further down towards the horizon.
He moved then, just a step back. She reached out to touch him - the first touch he's ever had since he left Ischia. A small pang cracked in his heart at such an intimate gesture. The thoughts (memories) of his mother and sister made his heart lurch for a moment, but he was quickly returned to the present. A beautiful red woman brushing his tattered, messy, salt-stained hair away from his face. For the moment he'd returned to the body of a boy, the attentive attention of a mother, he'd been made vulnerable.
He did not like that feeling one bit.
So a shadow crossed his features, and he coughed a bit, feeling rather uncomfortable. He was so out of his element here. He liked her. Vessel. And at the same token, he did not want to like her. He did not want to like anyone. No one was worth that. It had always been him, the sand, and the sea. His mother's sadness, and the way his sister clung to her - and then Kerberos and his unsavory brood, brimming with madness. He had no want of relationships for what they saw in their eyes. He did not relish the ache that it came with spending time with others.
Vessel keeps talking, settling into their easy conversation, not having noticed the change in his demeanor. He supposed it was for the best - she did nothing wrong to warrant the negative change in his countenance. And so while he stood there, vaguely bored, a few key words were pulled from her speech, and immediately his eyes were on her with interest again.
Reckoning.
Nerine.
He was younger than her, then. Interesting. Grimdark had been born at the height of the Reckoning, but had been one of the few who had been born with the magic of his abilities. His mother had always called him special. But he had never known what those abilities were - had never cared - and thus had never thought to try to use them. He simply was, as he was. So, the Reckoning had never bothered him, or meant much to him. He tilted his head, tucking this little bit of knowledge behind him. He had had nothing to lose, and thus it was just another day.
"They say the Reckoning brought about a great curse. Some lost everything. What did you lose?" He asks out of genuine curiosity, and though he feels he has pulled back from her emotionally - because apparently he does not like being reminded that he is a creature who has feelings... and needs (he needs no one), but he Grimdark finds that Vessel is an interesting creature... and has the feeling that she will be around his life for some time to come. He must get to know her, to find out for sure.
"I do believe this has been a successful 'outing,' as you put it. However, I am not out. I live here." He chuckles - a deep, rumbling sound that sets aside his earlier agitation. She was so different, unassuming. In his head though, a storm was roiling. He was facing this great dichotomy between the easy going man he could so easily be, and the dark anger that was pushing in his brain.
The copper and steel man took a breath, and stepped closer to Vessel then, snorting. His ratty tail swung outward and to the side, slapping his flank. "The bay in the crook of Nerine. A land you say you know so well. I've spent some time there recently. I found myself there on one of my journeys...The queen there was most...welcoming." He thinks of Isobell, and the curious way she had left him. The painted Queen's departure from him was a reminder that he was alone in this world. That he would always be be alone.
A heaviness sets in his features. She wants him. Even in his ignorance, he could sense it. He was, after all, a man. He breathes, over her, drawing close, lipping the penny-colored tendrils away from the slimness of her well contoured face, and looked deep into her eyes. A soft kiss is placed to her cheek as he pulls away, his ears going erect as he steps out. "I'm sorry, Vessel. I cannot give you what you seek. "
Grimdark closes his eyes and drags his mouth down her neck, down to her withers, and as he walks past her, slowly, he drags his heated lips over her shoulders, down her back, and her hips. And then he is gone. Into the sea - anywhere. A cold shower. Anything to get his head on straight.
He had to go home.
He had to see his mother.
GRIMDARK
deimos x ea, dragon vision, twilight manipulation, twin to allure
I saw it the disengagement in his eyes, the way he didn’t seem to want to be there, didn’t want me to be there. Confused by the sudden change I moved away, settling into a more amicable distance, one that strangers should have, one where there was no way he could take as some sort of pressure. Even though we played this dance of flirtation and apparent discomfort (from him so it would seem) I continued to try and continue the conversation as effortlessly as before. Don’t get me wrong- I didn’t expect anything of consequence, we just met and had been talking for only a short time. It would be a silly immature thing to expect that there would be anything more than flirtations and a few prolonged touches in this their first meeting. It didn’t mean that I couldn’t take interest and express it--as I had. Whatever had happened in the moment I moved tamed his forelock, I tried not to let it divert our pleasant conversation.
While I spoke of some of my basic history, he seemed intrigued once more. I seriously had no clue what to make of him and his hot-cold body language. But his question broke my self-questioning and made me focus more solely on him. Of course the Reckoning, many who were too young to know it wondered of its impact and magnitude. It was hard for them to imagine Beqanna being anything other than what it was. They would never know how different it was. As I thought of all the ways it had changed, my eyes are the ones to shade over. The Reckoning had taken everything, it was a lot to process and respond to, my own disengagement was not because of Grimdark, but because of a past, I often allowed myself to forget. ”The Reckoning….I lost my home, my mother, my twin-Vaughan, most everyone I knew-- I have not heard a whisper of them. My father- I believe he made it I think I have heard of him around… and my..lov--I lost a lot. But powers? No, my powers weren’t bestowed until recently. Though, I think lost powers are nothing compared that of loved ones….”
I drift into silence, my words falling off into a quiet whisper as if they were sections of land falling off a cliff into the seas. But he was soon laughing at other quips we shared as I worked on shoving the memories back into their place in the back of my mind. He seemed lighter after he let himself laugh. A sound deep and raspy but intoxicating after such a broody moment. I allow myself to laugh lightly with him, and it pulls me from myself as well. It didn’t help that he had closed the distance between them...again the confusing messages. This one sure knew how to screw with a girl’s mind. He talks of Nerine, my home, and the intonation speaks of more than a simple welcome, but I let it go simply making basic conversational replies to show I was listening and interested in his topic….but I didn’t care to pry-- not my place, I had no claim to him.
In his closeness, his eyes grow somber, a weight to them in response to what I’m not quite sure, but in it there comes a quiet confidence, on that, I hadn’t expected. He suddenly seems too close, as if his breath itself is consuming me, it's exciting and nerve-wracking all in one. His proximity makes me tower above me, and I seem too still, too unsure. But he lipped at my mane and I softened into his touch as if it were instinct. I almost forgot his hot-cold mannerisms in that moment. They were still there, just out shown by the unexpected moment, as his mouth caressed my cheek and I gently pressed against it. But he stepped away and his final words shattered the moment. “I can’t give you what you seek.” I made no attempt to hide my confusion. What I seek, I didn’t seek anything, I had no intent to walk to the river and have anything other than a conversation-- if that. I didn’t expect to find a handsome stallion and have him flirt back. What did he think I wanted? But again his actions didn’t match the words and before I had fully comprehended his words he had moved forward. He lips caressing my flesh in a delicious trail of kisses. Down my neck and shoulder, and without a word he was to my hip, making my breath catch in my throat, my words lost in a swirl of physical sensations that clashed head-on with what his words left me thinking. I returned a few heated kisses along his neck, and gently pressed my cheek against his withers, but was mostly still-- locked in a moment of disbelief. As he left me with more than I had thought would happen let alone, what I wanted. I simply was out letting myself experience the new Beqanna-- one I had neglected to explore in its early years.
He then left, back to the sea in which he had come. As the warmth of his body left my own, I felt slack-jawed like I didn’t know what had just transpired. Seems his body was more sure of what he could or couldn’t offer a simple mare such as me. I smile crossed my lips as the thought came and went. While he might have been the most mind-bending fellow, seems some things were still true-- attraction was attraction. Grim had given me exactly what I wanted, even if it was unknowingly. He had given me an interesting conversation and, unintentionally, the comfort that there was possibly a life after Chem. My black tipped head tipped to the side, as his form grew smaller...for I still wondered what he thought I wanted… and even more so-- If he knew what he himself wanted. My own body turned to leave the river waters and begin the trek back to Nerine. The question of seeing him again flickered in the back of my mind --he had said he had visited before, who knew if he would visit again. As I looked back, his form was gone-- and so had the last lingering tickled nerve of his kiss upon my hip.
